I attended the University of Wisconsin. Harvard was my fallback school, and it turns out I was lucky. According to Hugh Hewitt — who graduated Cum Laude from Harvard — the Ivy League food kind of sucks.
“This was before colleges cared much about taking care of their students,” Hewitt jokes. “It was Spanish rice all the time. I remember the blizzard of 1978 when the college closed for a few days. We ate peanut butter sandwiches. It was not fancy.”
Hewitt said Harvard requires freshman to live on the yard.
“I lived in Winthrop House with other underclassmen,” Hewitt said. He’s still friends with many of his classmates.
“They’re Democrats, but still friends. As I like to say ‘They’re wrong, not rotten’.”
His days at Harvard were memorable. “It’s a great place. So liberal, so smart. I’ve been dealing with these smart people since I started doing radio in 1990.”
The host of The Hugh Hewitt Show for Salem Media Group said — figuratively speaking — everyone went to the same high school.
“I was talking to a group of young lawyers and said there were commonalities with all of them,” he said. “Personalities, groups are the same everywhere. There are a lot of common denominators.”
After Harvard, Hewitt worked with Nixon in 1978-80, serving as executive director of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.
“I built the Nixon library and went back to run things for three years between directors,” Hewitt said. “The current director, Jim Byron, is fantastic. He should have been there a while ago.”
Hewitt served as President and CEO of the Nixon Library beginning in July 2019, and remains an active member of the board of directors, and continues to have a key role in much of the Nixon Foundation’s advancement and long-range initiatives.
He admired Richard Nixon but said the president should have owned up to the Watergate break-in and admitted what happened.
“I think he was too fearful,” Hewitt said. “Nixon had a 30 year battle with Harvard people. He brought down Alger Hiss and a lot of people never forgave him. Nixon always knew if he opened up his vulnerable spots, he would be susceptible to others.”
He believes Nixon was deeply alarmed by enemies. Believe it or not, Hewitt said Donald Trump and Nixon were friends.
“There was a huge correspondence between them. Pat Nixon was watching a young Trump on The Phil Donahue Show. She told Nixon, ‘That guy could be president’. Nixon wrote Trump a letter telling him what his wife had said.”
Hewitt said Trump is the best interview in America.
“You’re never quite sure what he’s going to say. He doesn’t cut me off. If he gets mad at something I’ve said, he’ll be angry the next day. Trump is always candid. Forthright.”
Despite being a fan of Trump, Hewitt admits the appearance of Trump and his Bible at St. John’s Church was a miscalculation. Hewitt knew someone who traveled to the church with Trump.
“They couldn’t get into the church because it had been burned, the doors were locked. I admit it was a bad visual.”
While speaking of journalists, Hewitt once said, in his opinion, Bob Woodward wasn’t rectitudinous. (I had to look it up.) He thought so little of Woodward, he banned him from the Nixon Library.
“I made a mistake,” Hewitt admitted. “Nixon called me up and said that was a stupid move. I’ve since made my peace with Bob.”
Hewitt said Woodward’s partner, Carl Bernstein, had only three good years in his career, and hasn’t done much since Watergate.
“He’s not virtuous,” Hewitt said. “Bernstein shows up now and again to talk about ethics. I want to see him go back and give us a fourth, fifth, sixth new story. He’s made a career off one story.”
Hewitt said former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was overflowing with rectitude. This is the same Scott Walker who said he went bald because he hit his head on a kitchen cabinet door.
“Walker was right about teachers,” Hewitt said. “My son is a teacher. I love teachers. I don’t like unions. The unions are responsible for a lot of ills in our society.”
On his way to complete baldness, Walker made sure he crippled Wisconsin teachers’ unions.
Hewitt said he’s been blessed with friends throughout his life.
“I don’t lose friends. I still play on a golf team with men and women from law school. They seem to keep me around for a chuckle. One is a billionaire, another is a small town lawyer in Ohio.”
Hewitt is spontaneous, witty, but I’m not sure if he appreciates comics. He went to the White House correspondence dinner in 2018 when it was hosted by comedian, Michelle Wolf.
“She’s rotten,” Hewitt said. “It was a horrible year for the event. The way Wolf treated Sarah Huckabee Sanders was rotten.”
I thought she was hilarious.
“I’m a jock-a-phobe,” Hewitt said. “I get really nervous when I talk with professional athletes. I remember Dennis Eckersley came up to me at an event and said he was a fan of my show. I couldn’t say anything. I think I said something completely stupid.”
During a speech, Hewitt once said media was biased. I asked what we would we see if media were not biased.
“There would be somebody like me and somebody like Rachel Maddow on every show,” Hewitt said. “Too many journalists bring their politics to work. Wolf Blitzer may be on a short list of five people whose politics I cannot guess. I think Dana Bash is that easy too. I view them as professional newscasters. But CNN isn’t non-partisan. I like Jeff Zucker. He turned me down for a job once. He wanted to hire me once and I said no. We both said no to each other. Tom Brokaw brought me in to NBC. He’s like Wolf Blitzer.”
Down the road, Hewitt said he’d like to be remembered as a fair guy. A good guy who gave everyone the opportunity to state their case. Made the world a better place.
“I’d never run for public office,” Hewitt said. “If you’re a politician, you can’t tell people what you really think. It’s a huge commitment. They are traveling all the time. I hate staying up late.”
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
